The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-03-12
BASE BALL.
How the Game Was Played Way
Back in the Sixties.

From the pen, evidently of some
veteran of the diamond there appeared
in the New York Sun of yesterday an
interesting article on base ball as played
by the five great mines back IN the
sixties-the Atlantics, the Athletics, the
| Mutuals, the Unions and, last in name
but first in proves, the Redstockings
of Cincinnati. The old ball player wi o
remembers the work of those famous
teams willfeel his memory kindie with
thoughts of the far away times in base
ball. Those were days when the public
interest In the game was something
which the young man of the present
day never can measure. Every village
| and hamlet had its nine and the local
| riValries we're of the bitterest character.
The city of New Haven alone had pro-
| baby fifty distinct base ball organi-
zation,, from six-year- old toddlings up
to gray-beards; and one organization
the old New HavenMutua ls-had seven
mines; the senior team consisting of
striplings of seventeen years and under,
| probably the best team of its age ever
| organized in the state. Then the
fame and the names of the great New
York and Brooklyn players were on
every lip. Stupid or else too modest
was the lad VINO could rot dilate on
Pratt's pitching or O'Brien's mighty
hits or the wonderful throws of Hat
| field. The play OF every member of the
| five big mines was studied, and any
great game was looked forward to the
same spirit as the Yale bows now
anticipate the championship games
with Harvard
In looking over the later record of
the members of those five mines, as
given in the San, some interesting facts
are brought out. OF all the men who
composed them not one is left now in
active play. Old Joe Start, who played
last year with Providence, was the last
to iace modern curved pitching. But q
number, including Ferguson and Harry
VIZ ght, have become. managers of clubs,
| and several more have had the temerity
to become official umpires. Curjously
enough, very few of the old heroes of
the ball field are dead and ali the mem
bers of the illustrious Redstockings of
1869, who never lost a game that year
and won ffty-seven consecutive
matches, are still living. Many of the
old players have become rich, and one,
Pratt of the old Atlantics, has been
worth his millions. 1t must be remem-
b4red, however, that up to the later
sixties a salary had never been paid to
ball player and the men were of higher
average grade than those who now
draw their thousands and play ball in
the same spirit that man sells sheep
or sugar.
Those were breezy old games, We
need to witness on the ball field-games
OF lively balls, tremendous sky hits,
and the crowd taking an active part in
the now more pacific duties of the
umpire. There was plenty of vigor but
little science, and when "Dicky'
Pearce first went up to catch behind the
outstanding some ten feet away from
the bats nan-his courage excited
bundles admiration. How odd it
seems now when we read that the
Athletics of Philadelphia, made scores
of 162, 13l, 119. lis, ia and so on and
were themselves defeated by. the score
OF 81 made by the Atlantics OF Brooklyn.
But big scores were the rule and they
made things lively on the ball field
more interesting, in fact, than now,
when the old pitch has become
throw, when dead balls have checked
heavy batting and the game has been
refined down to exactitudes almost
scientific. That old-fashioned game,
after all, had its strong points; certainly
it succeeded N interesting and divert
ing the public to degree which make
the modern appreciation of the game
seemingly tame and languid.
haven AeUS.